US Politics: Tragedy of the Commons? What's that?

[MerenthaClone]

Please, continue.

edit: For content, has anyone read Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century and do they have any thoughts on it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7vdAlzh-jo Sarah Palin: "If I were President, waterboarding is how we'd baptize terrorists." Goddamn, that's just offensive to everyone. Also, way to be a walking confirmation of a basic Al Qaeda recruitment spiel: "Americans want to invade us so they can torture and forcibly convert us!"

[TrackerNeil]

Please, continue.

edit: For content, has anyone read Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century and do they have any thoughts on it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7vdAlzh-jo Sarah Palin: "If I were President, waterboarding is how we'd baptize terrorists." Goddamn, that's just offensive to everyone. Also, way to be a walking confirmation of a basic Al Qaeda recruitment spiel: "Americans want to invade us so they can torture and forcibly convert us!"

It's to be hoped that Al Qaeda is as unconcerned with what Sarah Palin thinks as most Americans.

[sologdin]

tragedy of the commons as illustrated by sarah palin:

palin is a resource common to the entire world, but certain persons seek to expropriate her as part of their own myopic rational self-interest, to the detriment of the long term interests of the cosmopolis. those persons should therefore stop forcing her into rightwing publishing and b-list reality television, thereby allowing her to become president so that the world might enjoy her at no extra cost.

[awesome possum]

It still boggles the mind that somehow Sarah fucking Palin was almost Vice President of the United States.

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

It still boggles the mind that somehow Sarah fucking Palin was almost Vice President of the United States.

Thank Dog for Katie Couric, and her Gotcha questions.

[grumdin]

Please, continue.

edit: For content, has anyone read Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century and do they have any thoughts on it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7vdAlzh-jo Sarah Palin: "If I were President, waterboarding is how we'd baptize terrorists." Goddamn, that's just offensive to everyone. Also, way to be a walking confirmation of a basic Al Qaeda recruitment spiel: "Americans want to invade us so they can torture and forcibly convert us!"

She's a wonderful woman, y'all need to develop a sense of humor. And who the fuck cares about offending Al Qaeda???

[DanteGabriel]

She's a wonderful woman, y'all need to develop a sense of humor. And who the fuck cares about offending Al Qaeda???

She's a fraud and a grifter who parlayed the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the Republican Party into a lifelong free money gig, but thanks for playing.

[Inigima]

Sarah Palin is a disingenuous, terrible person.

Independent of al-Qaeda, waterboarding is unequivocally torture and the normalization thereof is maybe the single most disgusting product of the last 15 years, for which the country should be deeply ashamed.

Still waiting for Sean Hannity to put his money where his mouth is and make good on his pledge to be waterboarded to "prove" that it isn't torture.

Edit: grumdin, if your takeaway from that post was "don't offend al-Qaeda" there is something deeply wrong with your reading comprehension skills.

[lokisnow]

Please, continue.

edit: For content, has anyone read Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century and do they have any thoughts on it?

I've read the intro and the first two chapters and I have a LOT of thoughts. I was thinking of starting a thread in lit. My biggest take away at this point is the profoundly human orientation of the work. He's steeped in data, but constantly points out the caveats inherit in the data and seeks to position the work in its implication to society and culture and day-to-day life of people. So sort of the opposite of typical Washington wonkery that finds people and their behavior inconveniently disproving their precious thesis. It's a pretty amazing book so far.

To put it bluntly , the discipline of economics has yet to get over its childish passion for mathematics and for purely theoretical and often highly ideological speculation, at the expense of historical research and collaboration with the other social sciences. Economists are all too often preoccupied with petty mathematical problems of interest only to themselves. This obsession with mathematics is an easy way of acquiring the appearance of scientificity without having to answer the far more complex questions posed by the world we live in.

Piketty, Thomas (2014-03-10). Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Kindle Locations 657-661). Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition.

What are the major conclusions to which these novel historical sources have led me? The first is that one should be wary of any economic determinism in regard to inequalities of wealth and income. The history of the distribution of wealth has always been deeply political, and it cannot be reduced to purely economic mechanisms. In particular, the reduction of inequality that took place in most developed countries between 1910 and 1950 was above all a consequence of war and of policies adopted to cope with the shocks of war . Similarly, the resurgence of inequality after 1980 is due largely to the political shifts of the past several decades, especially in regard to taxation and finance. The history of inequality is shaped by the way economic, social, and political actors view what is just and what is not, as well as by the relative power of those actors and the collective choices that result. It is the joint product of all relevant actors combined.

The second conclusion, which is the heart of the book, is that the dynamics of wealth distribution reveal powerful mechanisms pushing alternately toward convergence and divergence. Furthermore, there is no natural, spontaneous process to prevent destabilizing, inegalitarian forces from prevailing permanently.

Piketty, Thomas (2014-03-10). Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Kindle Locations 458-462). Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition.

[awesome possum]

Thank Dog for Katie Couric, and her Gotcha questions.

I hope one day we figure out a way to peak in on alternate realities, because I would love to see the alternate timeline where they won. We saw how much Obama has aged in just 6 years, the job probably would have killed McCain and we'd have President Palin. Or if it didn't kill him and knowing what we know about her being a glory whore, would she have quit VP to run a primary campaign against him?

So many hilarious potentialities.

She's a wonderful woman, y'all need to develop a sense of humor. And who the fuck cares about offending Al Qaeda???

She may very well be a wonderful woman. But as a politician and political commentator she's a hack of the highest order. In fact, I think they had to create a new order just for her.

[grumdin]

I hope one day we figure out a way to peak in on alternate realities, because I would love to see the alternate timeline where they won. We saw how much Obama has aged in just 6 years, the job probably would have killed McCain and we'd have President Palin. Or if it didn't kill him and knowing what we know about her being a glory whore, would she have quit VP to run a primary campaign against him?

So many hilarious potentialities.

She may very well be a wonderful woman. But as a politician and political commentator she's a hack of the highest order. In fact, I think they had to create a new order just for her.

When she predicted that Putin would invade Ukraine oh how the left wing pundits with their massive brains laughed and laughed. What an idiot, I bet she knows that because she can see Russia from her house. God save us from the know it alls.

[grumdin]

She's a fraud and a grifter who parlayed the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the Republican Party into a lifelong free money gig, but thanks for playing.

I'm not a massive fan of her politics, she strays into neo conservatism too much for my taste. However I think she's a very personable and genuine person. She does her best and speaks her mind honestly without being purposefully deceitful, all rare traits for a politician. Plus of course she is the only politician that i have EVER (or ever will) fantasized about sleeping with :)

[DanteGabriel]

When she predicted that Putin would invade Ukraine oh how the left wing pundits with their massive brains laughed and laughed. What an idiot, I bet she knows that because she can see Russia from her house. God save us from the know it alls.

I just have to ask -- are you talking up Sarah Palin because you actually admire her, or is this just to piss off liberals?

[grumdin]

I just have to ask -- are you talking up Sarah Palin because you actually admire her, or is this just to piss off liberals?

Do you hate Palin so much because she's everything you wish Hilary was but never could be? I reckon a lot of the venom directed at her is down to the fact she's friggin gorgeous.

[Suttree]

See you just over played your hand right there. Next.

[DanteGabriel]

Do you hate Palin so much because she's everything you wish Hilary was but never could be? I reckon a lot of the venom directed at her is down to the fact she's friggin gorgeous.

You're trying too hard. Your troll is showing.

The easy response would be that it doesn't matter to me how attractive someone is, if they are a cesspool of stupidity and corruption and vindictiveness, like Sarah Palin. Further you make a mistake by assuming I am some kind of Hillary Clinton fan. I am not a huge fan of Hillary Clinton, and was quite against her in the 2008 Dem primaries, but she is too smart and accomplished to even be in the same conversation as a poisonous fraud like Palin.

[sologdin]

less about offending AQ and more about talking like a crusader, which is of course pre-modern bullshit.

as to hating palin for her looks: whatever.

as to hating palin because she's everything allegedly that hilary is not: whatever. this flows the other way, actually--which shall become beyond obvious after the H-bomb is elected president.

say that with us:

President Hilary Clinton

the schadenfreude will be sweet when slick is first lady.

but look on the bright side: that should rejuvenate the dying rightwing publishers.

[awesome possum]

When she predicted that Putin would invade Ukraine oh how the left wing pundits with their massive brains laughed and laughed. What an idiot, I bet she knows that because she can see Russia from her house. God save us from the know it alls.

Can you seriously be any more disingenuous (I mean, any more than an alt/banned member creating a new account to troll the politics threads already is)? Sarah Palin couldn't name a single newspaper or Supreme Court case when pressed; do you really believe her Russia invading Ukraine comment was anything more than one of the few foreign policy talking points she memorized?

As for why pundits were laughing at her, it wasn't because she "predicted" Russia would invade the Ukraine. It was because she basically said, "Russia will invade Ukraine because that Obammer fella." It was and still is an idiotic statement. If I say, "It's going to rain this month because grumdin enjoys midget scat porn" and it then rains... does that mean I'm right?

[armidil0]

the schadenfreude will be sweet when slick is first lady.

but look on the bright side: that should rejuvenate the dying rightwing publishers.

I'm really waiting for when Hillary is President and has her own sex scandal with her secretary.

"You know how many years I've been planning this, Bill?" I can hear her say now over the T.V.

[TrackerNeil]

She's a fraud and a grifter who parlayed the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the Republican Party into a lifelong free money gig, but thanks for playing.

And she's not much different from Cliveden Bundy or Joe the Plumber or any of the other folk-heroes conservatives come up with from time to time. In fact, she played right according to script by at first being a media darling and everything a right-winger could want, and then embarrassing herself with some gaffe (or whatever) and sending her supporters slinking quietly away.

I think Sarah Palin is fascinating. Inside of four years she went from origin to apotheosis to ignominy, which is a pretty notable accomplishment.